As popular as netbooks are, they have some fundamental flaws (small keyboards, etc), but one of the biggest problems is their operating system.
Most netbooks come with Windows XP, which is fine for most users, but there are not a lot of good alternatives. Of course, Microsoft requires XP-powered netbooks to be limited to 1GB of RAM, which irks many users, Vista is pretty much out of the question due to the under-powered nature of netbooks – even with 2GB of RAM. Windows 7 looks promising, but is still in beta.
To avoid this all together (and save some money), some manufactures ship netbooks with Ubuntu (like Dell, with the Mini 9 series), but some, like Asus, have rolled their own, custom Linux builds onto their products. (Note: Xandros is a stand-alone distro, but Asus puts their own “simplified” GUI on top of it.) Other companies offer different builds. It’s confusing to most users, so XP is just the simple, default answer.
There is nothing wrong with Ubuntu, or Linux. In fact, Ubuntu is my 2nd favorite OS on the market. (Guess which one is first.) But for the average Windows user, even Ubuntu can be overwhelming.
But there may be a new option around the corner. The guys over at Xavia360 explain:
I put it to you: If you were in charge of a computer company in a lousy market, and one of your choices was to invest more in the one product line that’s showing signs of life, would you do it? If you had a choice between paying a considerable chunk of cash for Windows and a lesser sum for Android, what would you do? Before answering those questions, you’d have to decide whether people would be willing to buy something other than Windows. Most haven’t been, but when the alternative is from Google, which is now as well known as Microsoft, there’s a real chance things could be different.
It makes perfect sense. Most netbooks users take advantage of online services, such as Gmail, Google Calendar and more, so why not let Google build the OS, too?
Not only could a Android-based netbook be easy to use for Windows users, it could offer a unified OS for all Linux-based netbooks that would be affordable – and more importantly – be easy to use.